Racism or no Racism: Delonas' Cartoon - Your Thoughts?

[ii0ii703 rico rob]

By way of OutlookIndia.com
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Democratic leaders say the cartoon compares Obama with the chimpanzee and thus evokes memories of racist past

'NYP' Cartoon Slammed for 'Aping' Obama

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New York | Feb 19, 2009
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A political cartoon depicting a chimpanzee as the drafter of the American financial stimulus bill has sparked a racial row in the US, with Democratic leaders up in arms against the New York Post for what they believe is an offensive reference to President Barack Obama.

The cartoon published by the the right-wing Post shows a police officer telling his colleague who had just shot a chimpanzee that "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The leaders, including New York Governor David A Peterson, apparently believe that the cartoon compares Obama with the chimpanzee and thus evokes memories of racist past.

The inspiration for the cartoon obviously came from an incident in Connecticut on Tuesday where a police officer shot dead a 200-pound chimpanzee after it attacked and seriously injured the owner's friend and then tried to attack the officers after they had taken shelter in their cars.

The cartoon was drawn by Sean Delonas. What added fuel to fire was that on the reverse side of the cartoon, a photograph of Obama signing the stimulus bill into law was published.

The Democratic leaders demanded explanation from the paper, saying that several people felt outraged by it.

Post Stands by the Cartoon

Reports quoted journalists at the paper as saying that telephone callers protesting the cartoon had jammed its lines. The Post, however, stood behind the cartoon.

Editor-in-Chief of New York Post Col Allan said: "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy."

"It would be very important for The Post to explain what cartoon was intended to portray," New York Governor said while replying to a question as to whether it was racist.

"Obviously those types of associations are made. They do feed a kind of negative and stereotypical way that the people think. But I think if it's enough that people are raising the issue," he said.

Civil rights activist and black leader Al Sharpton said the cartoon was troubling at best given the history of racist attacks portraying African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys.

"One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this," he said.

Some activist groups are planning to protest outside The Post's offices.

Senator Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said he found the Post cartoon offensive and purposefully hurtful. He said this type of cartoon serves no productive role in the public discourse.

City Councilman Leroy G Comrie Jr, a Queens Democrat, called for a boycott of the newspaper. "To run such a violent, racist cartoon is an insult to all New Yorkers," he said in a statement.



I just wanted to hear some thoughts on this. I don't have a stance on it btw
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[2guard]

it seems the cartoonist took two current events and made a drawing...but to say its racist you would have to know him on a personal level to answer thatquestion...
and the other hand..these ppl are diabolical.... do the knowledge....

 

[jupeezy]

i mean folks might say why make it a race thing....but its obvious in this case i think...the chimp that got shot had nothing to do with the stimuluspackage....and we all know blacks were referred to as monkeys....whats with their lame explanation tho? smh

 

[deuce king]

How can anyone NOT define that cartoon as racist??

 

[ii0ii703 rico rob]

Jupeezy..In other articles i read on it, many peoplewho simply commented on the cartoon stated it was not racist for the fact that he didn't WRITE the billper-say, he just SIGNED it..

I think the artist was clever enough to depict and word out that fact, but i think it still ties into deeper thoughts of the artist.

Like you said, the chimpanzee really has nothing to do with the issue of the stimulus at all. I can't connect any political irony between the two stories.

Can anyone in this forum do that for us?

 

[renzo289]

did anybody see anderson cooper 360 las nite with the "caulk" eyed black dude tryna defend the cartoon? how can you not consider that racist??? idont see how it relates to the chimp incident at all...its just sad that this type of stuff can still slide in 09...

 

[jupeezy]

thats the thing RICO, you can't connect the two...besides the fact that obama is black and blacks were referred to as monkeys...sad part about this is justthe beginning of all the slights and BS we will have thrown at US over the next few years....people are gonna push as far as they can...the main thing is whatthese organizations are gonna do about it and how they hold these folks accountable for this crap....smh yea its 2009 but its still a lot of idiots outhere....

 

[allanhouston20]

smh totally out of line. meaning of the cartoon is very easy to see...

 

[varisoxfan]

If you knew anything about politics....you would also know that Congress wrote the Stimulus, not the President, he just signs it...

 

[renzo289]

if you knew anything about racism...you would know that was a racist cartoon...what does the monkey incident have to do with congress???

 

[varisoxfan]

its the fact that they weren't inferring the President was the one who wrote the stimulus plan, because that in itself is impossible, he signs it into law,he doesnt draft the legislation....what they are saying is that a monkey could have wrote the stimulus plan and since they shot a monkey that basically rippeda womans face off, they may need to find someone else to do it.

if it said

"theyll have to find someone else to SIGN the next stimulus plan."

then yea, that would be racist, but they arent referring to the president, they are talking about Congress and how they are dumb as monkeys.

all in all, bad attempt at a joke, terrible execution of a joke...

 

[jagshemash]

I don't know what the intentions of the artist were but it's inappropriate regardless.

 

[ii0ii703 rico rob]

Varisox... 3 or 4 posts before you mentioned the fact that he just Signed the bill, i already mentioned that, so we were already aware of it.

Do you have any other explaination, or do you read comments from news websites and run with them?

We aren't dumb, and we know he didn't write it.

At the end of the day, Obama had to agree with it inpart, before signing it, so the whole "write vs. signing" is a weak arguement to me because allparties are tied together.

Sean Delonas opposes everyone who was with the bill, not just the person(s) who wrote it, so the "Monkey" characterizes all who were involved.

Like Jag said, it was innapropriate either way, and if you have ever seen any other pieces from Delonas, you would know he has some pretty strong views. If youdon't, search for his comedic strips about gays. Pretty cut throat and uncalled for.

Writing a stimulus plan to help temporarily "boost" economy, even if it is a pretty BS plan, and a rabid Chimpanzee (not a monkey, chimps and monkeysare different, but that's a whole different story) ripping off a woman's face.... sorry, connection between the two is NO BUENO

 

[toweh]

I think it was a display of insensitivity and ignorance ... plain and simple


This cartoonist has a very large medium in which he and the editor of his section can display thought provoking imagery ...

However, they chose to print something that can only logically lead to conjecture in a negative form ...

At least this was careless and I think it was a prime example of how some people use public forums and media to display their personal views on the low ...

 

[varisoxfan]

Originally Posted by II0II703 RICO ROB

Varisox... 3 or 4 posts before you mentioned the fact that he just Signed the bill, i already mentioned that, so we were already aware of it.

Do you have any other explaination, or do you read comments from news websites and run with them?

We aren't dumb, and we know he didn't write it.

At the end of the day, Obama had to agree with it inpart, before signing it, so the whole "write vs. signing" is a weak arguement to me because all parties are tied together.

Sean Delonas opposes everyone who was with the bill, not just the person(s) who wrote it, so the "Monkey" characterizes all who were involved.

Like Jag said, it was innapropriate either way, and if you have ever seen any other pieces from Delonas, you would know he has some pretty strong views. If you don't, search for his comedic strips about gays. Pretty cut throat and uncalled for.

Writing a stimulus plan to help temporarily "boost" economy, even if it is a pretty BS plan, and a rabid Chimpanzee (not a monkey, chimps and monkeys are different, but that's a whole different story) ripping off a woman's face.... sorry, connection between the two is NO BUENO

I think that there are bigger fish to fry then getting up in arms about a cartoon that was run in a lower tier newspaper that is widely regardedas being just above a tabloid magazine. By getting "outraged" it draws more attention to the newspaper, increases there web traffic and just makesthem push the edge even more.

Sorry, but i really could care less.

Also where were people when there were cartoons that were depicting Condi in a detrimental way?

 

[ii0ii703 rico rob]

You're kind of right, but there were people outraged by how Condi was pictured, but not on the same scale. If i stand correct, i don't think she wasdepicted as a Chimpanzee being shot to death by two police officers now was she? Big difference...

A lot of people can see the NY Post as whatever they want to, but there sure are a hell of a lot of people who read it, from all races and all economicclasses, all over the US and in other countries as well....end of the day, it is still relevant that the NY Post had this printed in their paper.

It doesn't matter if they are a big fish, little fish, no fish at all. Crossing the line is crossing the line and all fish need to get fried. Delonasisn't dumb (in a sense), he knew what he was doing.

 

[bigtomgetsgwap]

Originally Posted by VARISOXFAN

its the fact that they weren't inferring the President was the one who wrote the stimulus plan, because that in itself is impossible, he signs it into law, he doesnt draft the legislation....what they are saying is that a monkey could have wrote the stimulus plan and since they shot a monkey that basically ripped a womans face off, they may need to find someone else to do it.

if it said

"theyll have to find someone else to SIGN the next stimulus plan."

then yea, that would be racist, but they arent referring to the president, they are talking about Congress and how they are dumb as monkeys.

all in all, bad attempt at a joke, terrible execution of a joke...

Hmmm it makes since now but they should of known that it would of come off as a racist cartoon

 

[rudolph1996]

Just a reminder ( not like we needed one) That off-"color" attempts at humor that infer possible racial undertones to create hype/sensationalism orsell papers wasn't going to stop because there is a Black Man in the White House.... the @@#$ washed over me because there are more important things tofocus on.....

 

[lilstarz07]

every day i turn on the radio i hear something as bad/worse than this toward white people ... people need to let ignorant %+%* go sometimes

 

[varisoxfan]

Originally Posted by RUDOLPH1996

Just a reminder ( not like we needed one) That off-"color" attempts at humor that infer possible racial undertones to create hype/sensationalism or sell papers wasn't going to stop because there is a Black Man in the White House.... the @@#$ washed over me because there are more important things to focus on.....

Bingo.

And they can cross the line all they want to, but there is this thing in the Constitution called Freedom of Speech, and they can run whatever kind of cartoonthey want.

 

[destination kicks]

what they are saying is that a monkey could have wrote the stimulus plan


First thing I thought about when I saw the cartoon. Poor attempt at a joke though, and I still think he knew what he was doing. But... don't like thecartoon? Don't buy the paper.

 

[mytsharp]

I'm about to get myself banned.

So I'll keep it to myself.

My-T.

 

[jahsondc]

not a good look my friends

 

[shoecrazy23]

Thats the Funniest Thing ive seen All DAy

 

[varisoxfan]

Originally Posted by MyTsharp

I'm about to get myself banned.

So I'll keep it to myself.

My-T.